Pune: The ideal gap between two covishield doses is two months and another dose of the vaccine must be taken after six months, Chair of the Serum Institute of India (SII) Cyrus Poonawalla said on Friday.
Asked about reports in the Lancet medical journal that antibodies against Coronavirus created by the Covishield, the vaccine produced by SII, reduced after some time, Poonawalla told reporters that it was true that antibodies were reduced, but “memory cells” remained.
“After six months, the antibodies went down and which was why I had taken the third dose.
We have given the third dose to seven thousand of our SII employees.
For those who have completed the second dose, it is my request to take a booster dose (third dose) After six months, “he said.
He spoke at a press conference after receiving a prestigious Local Tilak award.
The ideal gap between two covishield doses is two months, he said.
“Because there was a lack of vaccines, the mode government turned it into three months, but the two-month gap was ideal,” said Poonawalla.
He also said that locking is not an effective way to deal with viruses.
“Because if there is no lock, this disease will be there at the beginning but then the herd immunity will win.
Why do I prefer herd immunity is because of the mortality rate (because the coronavirus) is very low.
Lockdown is a good choice when the death rate is high,” he said.
In most cases, death is caused by negligence and delay in reporting infection to the doctor, he claims.